When it comes to marketing, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. However, in every industry, there is what is known as reactive and proactive marketing. But what exactly is the difference between these two types of marketing strategies, and how can they benefit your business?
What is proactive marketing?
Also called planning, a proactive marketing strategy is created after in-depth research into a company’s analytics and data. Marketing teams will look at real-time information, and answers from any recent survey questions, to determine the best course of action for their campaign and continuously monitor results over a period of time. During the campaign, they may make changes to help it to be as successful as possible.
What is reactive marketing?
Reactive marketing is different because no planning is carried out and, instead, the campaign is reacting to a certain event, news story or situation. The success of the campaign is determined at the end rather than throughout.
The benefits of proactive marketing
Planning through proactive marketing means that your brand will be prepared and have a campaign running at any given time. Not just any campaign either, but a measured approach that is likely to work but can also be amended as you monitor its effectiveness along the way. Other benefits of proactive marketing are:
1. Better success rate
In proactive marketing, you can design your campaigns using real-time data from past campaigns that have worked. You’re effectively going in with the knowledge that your target audience is likely to respond well to this campaign and, by continuously monitoring the results, you can make quick tweaks to ensure its success.
2. Maintain brand awareness
Being able to plan means you can ensure that you have regular campaigns throughout the year, which means you can be front and centre of your target audience’s mind. Not only can this help to maintain strong brand awareness, but it will increase brand loyalty, engagement, and your competitive positioning.
3. Identify gaps
As proactive marketing uses your existing data collection to plan campaigns, you can see which areas you’re missing data from, or which areas you’d like to have more data in. This will not only help your future campaigns but can also improve your service offering as well as how you engage with customers.
4. Save time and money
With a marketing plan in place, you know that your brand is covered for the full year. You don’t need to worry about quickly coming up with an idea and, if business gets busy during a certain period, your marketing is already planned. Not only does this save you time in the long run but it also stops you from wasting money.
The benefits of reactive marketing
Reactive marketing is a great way for your business to react to spur of the moment events and keep your customers engaged. While it’s said to be slightly riskier compared to proactive marketing, there are a number of benefits that any sized business can enjoy.
1. Stay relatable
A key factor of any successful business is that they are relatable and relevant to their target audience. If you want to ensure your brand is just that, you need to know everything about your target audience – including what they’re currently talking about. Has a recent celebrity said something specific? Is there a TV programme that they can’t get enough of? By jumping on the back of news, topics, and real-time events that your audience are interested in, you’ll be more relevant to them.
2. More engagement
It’s hardly surprising that when your campaign is focused on a topic that your target audience is currently talking about, engagement is going to be high. It’s likely that impression rates will be higher than any of your other campaigns too because there’s already a buzz around the topic, which leads us onto the next point…
3. Go viral
When there’s already so much engagement surrounding something, it’s easier to go viral with reactive marketing. In fact, platforms like Twitter make it easy for thousands of likes, comments and shares to happen in minutes. Of course, this won’t happen every time but when it does your brand could reach new customers and audiences that you hadn’t previously dreamed of interacting with.
4. Be memorable
If you can make your reactive marketing funny, then it’s also likely to stick in the minds of your customers. In fact, 53% say they are more likely to enjoy and remember a funny advert. As more people remember your content, they’ll also remember the brand behind it, which does wonders for your brand awareness, reputation, and loyalty.
Whether you opt for reactive or proactive marketing will depend on your business needs and what you want to get out of it. However, an annual strategy that has space for both can be a wise option for many.